- 42 minutes 21 secondsThriller writer Karin Slaughter on adapting her novel, The Good Daughter, for TV
Bestselling US thriller writer Karin Slaughter talks to Tom Sutcliffe about adapting her novel The Good Daughter for the screen. Set and filmed in her native Georgia, the series focuses on two sisters played by Oscar-nominated actor Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, with Brendan Gleeson as their defence lawyer father.
A new exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich explores the kiss in art. How has it been depicted and what does that tell us about the changes in society. Its curator John Kenneth Paranada and art historian Katy Hessel discuss why it's obsessed artists for so long.
A few days ago a US court gave the go-ahead for Michael Crichton's widow to pursue a lawsuit against Warner Brothers Television, on the grounds that the Emmy winning series The Pitt was, in effect, an unlicenced spin off of the hugely successful series E.R, originally created by Michael Crichton. Joining Tom to talk about what happened and hospital dramas is the Guardian's television critic Lucy Mangan.
Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski talks about his latest film Fatherland, for which he won Best Director at Cannes earlier this year. It explores the celebrated German writer and Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann's postwar return from exile in the US and his controversial tour of East and West Germany.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Andrea Kidd
10 November 2026, 8:26 pm - 29 minutes 54 secondsWinner of the 2026 Booker Prize announced live from the ceremony
Samira Ahmed presents live from Old Billingsgate in London, where the announcement of the winner of the Booker Prize 2026 is taking place.
The novels on the shortlist are: The End of Everything by M. John Harrison, The Disappearers by Marlon James, May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, Black Bag by Luke Kennard, The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout, and John of John by Douglas Stuart.
As well as speaking to the winner, Samira talks to some of the judges including Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and Chair of judges classicist Mary Beard.
The poet Raymond Antrobus performs a work inspired by his experience of being a Booker judge. In it he warns about an artificial future and his performance is accompanied by composer and violinist Sasha Scott.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Bartleet
9 November 2026, 10:50 pm - 41 minutes 44 secondsBooker Prize 2026: All the Shortlisted Authors
The six authors shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize discuss their novels ahead of tonight's ceremony, which is broadcast live on Radio 4 at 9.30pm in a special extra edition of Front Row.
M. John Harrison on The End of Everything Marlon James on The Disappearers Rebecca Perry on May We Feed the King Luke Kennard on Black Bag Elizabeth Strout on The Things We Never Say Douglas Stuart on John of John
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Claire Bartleet
9 November 2026, 8:00 pm - 42 minutes 19 secondsReview Show: La Bola Negra and Keira Knightley in The Lives of Others
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by reviewers Nancy Durrant and Tim Robey for this week's review.
Keira Knightley stars in The Lives of Others, adapted for the stage and directed by Robert Icke, from the 2006 film, about love and Stasi surveillance in East Germany.
La Bola Negra is Spain's nomination for the foreign language Oscar. It's a gay love story set during the Spanish Civil War intertwining three timeframes and the complications of love and war.
Twice Booker Prize-nominated author Tom McCarthy's latest novel, The Rhyl Poster, about a jurist -turned- double agent in the Court of Justice of the European Union.
We speak with Baillie Gifford Prize winner Edmund Richardson, whose book about Alexander The Great has won this year's £50,000 award.
5 November 2026, 8:45 pm - 42 minutes 30 secondsArtist Sam Taylor Johnson and Oscar winning film-maker Sian Heder
Artist Sam Taylor Johnson has photographed a wide range of actors, artists and musicians including Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tracey Emin, Philip Seymour-Hoffman and Alexander McQueen. She's also made biographical feature films about John Lennon and Amy Winehouse, and has repeatedly turned the camera on herself. She talks to us about the art of portraiture and what she has learned about selfhood.
Oscar winning writer and director Sian Heder talks to us about Being Heumann, her unflinching feature about the Disability Rights Movement which is based on true events and stars Ruth Madeley as Judith Heumann, a lifelong activist for people with disabilities, who died in 2023.
Later this month a conference commemorates the centenary of the publication of what is billed as "the wildest, most ambitious, most controversial poem in Scottish literature": Hugh MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. The modernist poem, in which a drunk man on a moonlit hillside addresses the thistle, the nation and the universe is widely credited with igniting a literary renaissance in Scotland, and also contributed towards the formation of a new nationalist movement. MacDiarmid's official biographer Alexander Linklater and the poet's daughter-in-law, Deirdre Grieve, also a writer, join us to discuss the significance of the poem and the contradictions in MacDiarmid's own life.
And it's emerged that Fleabag creator, writer and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge purchased a flat in London which is providing a home for playwrights from underprivileged backgrounds. Sofie Mason, the co-founder of Writers’ Block and the director of the theatre charity Off West End, tells why this will make such a big difference.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
4 November 2026, 8:13 pm - 42 minutes 26 secondsMusician Nitin Sawhney and writer Samantha Harvey's Orbiting Orbital collaboration
Musician Nitin Sawhney's latest composition has been inspired by Samantha Harvey's Booker prize-winning novel Orbital. Called Orbiting Orbital, it also includes original writing by Samantha. They discuss the work and their collaboration with Kate.
Author Jasper Rees talks about the acclaimed actor Michael Gambon's life and career as his new authorised biography is released - from being spotted by Laurence Olivier for the National Theatre through to his role as Dumbledore later in life.
Curator Charlene Prempeh introduces the new exhibition The Nue Black Aesthetic at the Design Museum.
And we pay tribute to the musician Juan Atkins who is widely regarded as the godfather of techno.
Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Lucy Collingwood
3 November 2026, 8:24 pm - 42 minutes 25 secondsGrandmaster Flash, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, talks about his life in music.
Grandmaster Flash, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, talks about his memoir, Birth of a Culture, and the music and events that shaped his life and his music.
The Ramayana is one of the world’s oldest stories and as the new film, Rise of A Legend, hits screens this week telling of the epic battle between the evil Ravana and righteous Rama, we look at the cultural and literary significance of this famous tale with performance storyteller and author Vayu Naidu and writer and director Jatinder Verma.
Patrick Stewart won people's hearts from his Shakespearean theatre work to his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. We hear an interview he gave to Front Row from 2023, in which he discusses his journey from working class Yorkshire to Hollywood.
And the voice of K9, John Leeson, has died. Actor and comedian Toby Hadoke pays tribute to the man behind Doctor Who's iconic robot dog.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Andrea Kidd
2 November 2026, 9:05 pm - 42 minutes 26 secondsReview Show: RSC's Middlemarch, Agatha Christie exhibition and Gentle Monster film
Nina Raine has adapted George Eliot's Middlemarch for the RSC, into a 2 part, 6-hour long stage play. How does it measure up to the book and the much-loved TV adaptations?
The British Library is celebrating the life and writing of Agatha Christie in an exhibition to mark 50 years since her death. She wrote the world's longest-running theatre play - The Mousetrap, (75 years so far) - and has sold more than 2 billion books. But who was the woman behind the stories? With artefacts and handwritten notes, this exhibition also looks at her pre-novelist career.
The film Gentle Monster from Maria Kreutzer is about a family that is confronted by the father committing an appalling crime. How do they rationalise his actions... can they?
And is Russia's targeted bombing of Ukrainian book storage depots, libraries and bookshops part of a campaign to erase Ukraine's culture?
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
29 October 2026, 8:29 pm - 42 minutes 13 secondsReinventing fairy tales for the 21st century
Actor Ashley Walters, who previously starred in the acclaimed series Adolescence and Top Boy, on his feature directorial debut Animol, a harrowing drama about youth crime and humanity, set in a juvenile detention centre, which draws on Walters' own experience as a younger man.
We discuss the reinvention and subversion of the fairy tale genre, with comedian and author Daniel Foxx. whose new book Fairytales for Privileged Children: Little Red Riding Hood Blows Her Trust Fund & Other Premium Tales skewers the wealthy and elite in today's society, and with Michelle Anya Anjirbag, whose Cinderella: A Cultural History is published this week. How have writers across the centuries used often ancient plots to explore contemporary themes such as justice, gender and sexuality?
And in the latest of our interviews with the writers shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, we speak to author Elizabeth Strout about The Things We Never Say, a spare and economical tale set in the American state of Maine, about marriage, secrets and kindness.
And there's been a spate of theatre closures across the country this year. What's behind this, and did Chancellor John Healey's budget today offer any support for the sector?
Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
28 October 2026, 8:08 pm - 42 minutes 28 secondsJohn Malkovich and Sam Rockwell on Martin McDonagh's new film Wild Horse Nine
Oscar winner Sam Rockwell and Oscar nominee John Malkovich join Tom to talk about their new film Wild Horse Nine from Banshees of Inisherin writer and director Martin McDonagh.
A new resource pack from the University of Leeds's Cultural Institute offers practical tools to help arts organisations prepare for, manage and learn from conflict, particularly divisive 'culture wars' issues. Its author Professor Aylwyn Walsh tells Tom about the growing need for this resource.
Marlon James won the Booker Prize in 2015 for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. He has been shortlisted again this year for his new book The Disappearers, which focuses on the difficulties of being gay in 1980s Jamaica. He discusses the book with Tom as part of our series of interviews with all of this year's shortlisted authors.
And last week the new president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, ordered the removal of dozens of items from the National Museum of Colombia, including artefacts related to LGBTQ+ history, feminism and the political history of the country. Luis Fajardo from BBC Monitoring joins Tom to talk about the events and the subsequent protests.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano
27 October 2026, 8:11 pm - 42 minutes 18 secondsAudrey Niffenegger on the sequel to her hugely successful novel The Time Traveller's Wife
Best-selling author of The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger talks about her much-anticipated sequel Life Out of Order, which returns to the story of the time travelling father and daughter.
Playing FBI agent Dale Cooper in the 1990s tv series Twin Peaks made a cult star of actor Kyle MacLachlan. He discusses his memoir Fictional Selves, which reflects on this, and his other roles for auteur David Lynch.
Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic classic Dracula may have shaped visions of vampires for generations, but the blood-sucking creature of the night has fascinated writers long before he first left Transylvania. Nick Groom joins to talk about his new collection Vampire Tales, which features some of the earliest known stories about vampires, while author and vampire fan Suzi Feay reads her new poem Vampire from her latest book of poetry Maledictions.
And Gilles Mentré, co-founder of the Prix Pascal of AI Literature, explains his hopes for this new award.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd
26 October 2026, 8:34 pm - More Episodes? Get the App